TV and radio museum to sell unfinished building

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: Originally posted: December 12, 2008 : TV and radio museum to sell its unfinished home : : Blaming an unkept funding promise from Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the economic downturn, the Museum of Broadcast Communications announced today that it intends to sell its unfinished building on the corner of State and Kinzie in Chicago. : "What began as a dream for many has turned into a nightmare thanks to Gov. Blagojevich," Bruce DuMont, the museum's founder, president and chief executive, said in a statement. : The TV and radio museum's board voted for the sale Wednesday, the day after Blagojevich's early-morning arrest by federal agents on corruption charges. : According to DuMont, the museum initially was promised $8 million by the governor in March 2005. DuMont said by e-mail the state's budget director reduced that amount to $6 million -- a $3 million grant and $3 million loan -- the following January with a grant document signed in May 2006 but funds never released. : DuMont's statement today held out the hope that whoever acquires the property "will have a sense of history and community spirit" and might keep the museum as a tenant as "this will now be the only way we will be able to offer" an interactive experience for those interested in media. : The museum earlier this summer was named in a foreclosure suit by its general contractor, Pepper Construction Co., with DuMont telling the Chicago Tribune at the time it owed Pepper about $4.5 million. : DuMont said at the time the museum hoped that naming rights, a donor or foundation, might provide upward of $6 million to rescue the project. He also noted plans had been scaled back to allow for leasing of the first two floors to other tenants. : The museum moved out of its most recent home in the Chicago Cultural Center in 2003 and originally planned to move into its new four-story facility no later than 2006, but construction shut down in May 2006 for lack of funds. : "Much time and money has been lost due to the failure of the state to act," DuMont said today. "This is a very disappointing development." : In an appearance on WTTW-Ch. 11 on the night of the governor's arrest, DuMont said it was Blagojevich's 2005 promise of $8 million in state funding that convinced the museum board to approve the start of the construction project that summer. : "That was the beginning of what has turned out to be a very tragic and ugly story," DuMont told Channel 11. : DuMont also said on WTTW that, after construction was halted, a member of Blagojevich's administration told the museum to reject a privately offered $6 million bridge loan upon learning the would-be lender was a fundraiser for Blagojevich's Republican rival, Judy Baar Topinka. : The Museum of Broadcast Communications was established in 1987 and its archives include more than 85,000 hours of radio and TV broadcasts and numerous artifacts. : (Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)

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